Dante Festival "Russian Themes" Concert at St Germans Church, Cornwall

Monday 10th July 2017 

Krysia Osostowicz, Oscar Perks violin, Yuko Inoue viola, Richard Jenkinson cello

East Cornwall Youth String Orchestra director Tim Boulton

The Dante Quartet have been running a chamber music -plus festival in East Cornwall for 14 years and I confess this is the first time I have been able to attend what has become a critical event in East Cornwall classical music making of recent years http://www.dantefestival.org/contact.htm .  This concert was the opening of a busy week  which includes concerts up and down the Tamar Valley, including today in Blisland and Launceston and at Calstock Chapel, Callington Church.    The  leader Krysia Ososkovich is now resident in Cornwall  - in fact co leader because   Oscar Perks led the astonishing performance of Shostokovich's 7th Quartet and the Arensky, so in this quartet leading honours are shared.  Yuko Inoue the violist is a strong middle anchor and,  the relatively new member (to me) of this quartet (which has had a long international history under Krysia's lead and many prestigious recordings with Hyperion to its name),  is Richard Jenkinson whose cello playing (principal cello with the CBSO) transforms the sound adn structure of  this quartet -  characterful interpretation and dexterous  and all of them astonishingly quick in the finale of the Rasumovsky Quartet they played (Opus 59 no 3)

The concert took place in the wonderful church of dedicated to St Germanus of Auxerre who visited Britain for the first time in 429AD and the church was the seat of a Bishop in the Saxon church before the See of Exeter superceded it.  Its very striking asymmetric West Towers straddle the magnificant Norman west doorway whose tympanum is a masterpiece.

The Dante Quartet and the East Cornwall Youth Orchestra decided to perform side on across the aisles and nave and they are raised on a wooden floor which gave extra tone to the music, I found the balance where I was sitting slighly against the violins and wondered whether the wooden floor boosted the bass.  As the ECYO perform standing up, the sight lines were fine for the 100 or so audience who attended this second joint performance between the Quartet and the ECYO.  They first came together last year.  The director of ECYO is Tim Boulton who is spreading some of the magic he has woven among young string players in the far west Penzance Youth Strings and Cornwall Youth Orchestra to the east of the county.   The audience included parents of the string orchestra from across the east of the county, some of whom I fell into conversation with   who had loved the first concert with the Dante's in Launceston and were now keen supporters - this is audience building of pioneering nature by the Quartet..


The programme was generous and themed around "Russia" It offered the classic string quartet format of an opening Haydn quartet "The Joke" in  E flat - Opus 33 are nicknamed the "Russian".  And the name the Joke comes from the disconcerting ending where quartet and audience play cat and mouse with whether the piece has ended or not.

The Arensky Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky was played in a version specially arranged for the youth band and very well adapted for the different skills within it.  there was some great double bass playing and as mentioned above the lead fiddle of Oscar Perks was excellent.  A really great ensemble performance with TB taking his part in the viola section.

The Shostakovich work was played brilliantly and along with the Beethoven   a highlight of this concert. Strangely austere it is notable for its dispassionate feel composed in 1960 but dedicated to the  memory of his wife Nina  it was maybe  a time (in the cold war)  when any sort of emotional engagement might have brought unwanted attention to the composer.  It is as inscrutable but fascinating as a futurist Russian poster.

The Beethoven Quartet is the one over which Beethoven inscribed "Let your deafness no longer be a secret, not even in your art" as we were reminded in Osotovicz's helpful programme notes - written and published in 1807 his deafness had become known in 1802.


Futher details can be had from www.dantequartet.org

The church has for many years been a treasured  performance space in East Cornwall for classical music of mid scale  and I remember several wonderful Baroque concerts including one  by Fretwork  with  the late Richard Campbell, gambist extraordinaire.

Except for one thing..... the lack of a lavatory has been an embarassment for many bibulous audience members and rehearsing musicians !   Now finally there are two huts with composting facilities right outside the West End.....a welcome innovation if rather prominent before the amazing Norman West facade.